As reported previously on BayToday.ca, city police are becoming concerned about the current fad of people dressing as clowns and scaring unsuspecting victims.
See: Creepy Clown concerns in North Bay?
At 6 p.m. Wednesday, someone called the North Bay Police Service to report that a person dressed as a clown was on the Kate Pace Way crouching in the bushes near the fire station on Marshall Ave.
The clown jumped from the bushes, scaring three children on bicycles.
The suspect was reported to be wearing a red shirt, black pants and a clown mask. He had fled by the time police arrived at the scene.
That comes on the heels of another clown sighting at approximately 8:38 p.m. on October 6th.
A witness called police to report three people dressed as clowns behind West Ferris School near the sandpit.
The caller was concerned that the people may be trying to scare children, consistent with other “creepy clowns” reported in other areas.
Police searched but the suspects had left the scene.
While dressing up as a clown is not against the law, police can charge a person criminally if there are grounds to believe acts of mischief were committed, if victims were threatened, assaulted, or harassed.
You can also be charged under Ontario’s Trespass to Property Act, or under the City of North Bay Municipal Bylaw as it applies to City parks, which the public is prohibited from accessing after midnight say police.
Meanwhile in Utah things are getting serious. The Orem Police Department has been fielding questions on its Facebook page about clown sightings, including whether it is legal to shoot clowns that act in a threatening manner.
Under the title,"Let's have a serious talk about clowns", the police say, "We have answered over 40 questions on FB and a few dozen calls at our dispatch center about clowns today. It's not the number of calls or messages that is concerning but the content of the messages.
"Can I shoot or take action against someone that is dressed up like a clown"? That's not a simple yes or no question. It has a lot of variables to it."
It advises residents to check Utah's law on force against another person ( https://le.utah.gov/xcode/Title76/Chapter2/76-2-S402.html ) before shooting someone.
"We understand that clowns to some people are already "creepy" and some people have a phobia of them, we see that. However, if someone is standing on the sidewalk, dressed like a clown and they don't have any weapons and they are just standing there not chasing anyone around and you call us, when we respond and that person decides to look at us and walk the other way without saying a word, we can't do anything.
"If you call, we will answer the phone and we will send an officer out. That's what we do. Just understand that sometimes we can't do anything about it, if no laws are being broken."
It cautions that everything you read online is not always true. "Some of these clown stories circulating around have been made up."
But it warns, "If you are planning on dressing up like a clown and chasing kids around to scare them, plan on facing some criminal charges."
